One customer, Kerstin Schilling, chief executive of Bestsidestory GmbH, an online marketing provider based in Leipzig, Germany, hesitated a year before committing to Web-based software from SAP, in part because the firm evoked fears of long project installations and high costs.

WSJ: Slow Start for SAP's Web-Based Software

"Search is what ignited everything, " says Geoff Ramsey, Chief Executive of eMarketer, a firm which aggregates and analyzes online marketing statistics.

FORBES: Tech Boom, Media Bust

From his earliest days with the company, when it was a video-games firm called Control Video Corporation, the former Pizza Hut marketing executive was convinced that there was something magical about the delivery of content online.

ECONOMIST: A theory of the Case | The

"Google Wallet allows us to harness the power of mobile technology to enhance our in-store shopping experience and helps bridge the gap between our online and in-store consumer interactions, " said Martine Reardon, executive vice-president of marketing and advertising, Macy's.

ENGADGET: Google Wallet mobile payment service, Google Offers announced